Posts tagged ‘GrowNYC’

Manhattan is not the world’s best place for a restaurant to build a farm. But Riverpark Restaurant, a new restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, did just that — thanks to an open-minded, eco-conscious landlord and some out-of-the-box thinking.

The 15,000-square-foot farm — located 100 feet from the restaurant at Alexandria Center for Life Science, a new but unfinished biotechnology complex on 29th Street between 1st Avenue and the FDR Drive — is not your typical farm. It’s portable. The hundred different crops that grow there — everything from arugula and collard greens to eggplant, zucchini and squash — are raised in thousands of double-stacked milk crates. (more…)

Two local food advocates were appointed to Gov. Cuomo’s New York City Regional Economic Development Council: Marcel Van Ooyen, executive director of GrowNYC, the nonprofit behind the city’s thriving network of Greenmarkets; and Steve Hindy, president of the Brooklyn Brewery.

The New York City Regional Economic Development Council is one of 10 regional councils Gov. Cuomo launched last month to drive local economic development and improve the business climate statewide. Each council will compete for state funding from a total pot of up to $1 billion in economic development aid. (more…)

Until recently little was known of New York City’s roughly 500 community gardens beyond the fact that the majority of them – 80 percent – grew food.

Now efforts are underway to find out what and how much is growing in city garden plots. Last year, Farming Concrete, a project to quantify the bounty of city gardens, began releasing its initial findings. And last month, two environmental organizations, GrowNYC and Green Thumb, released a report on a joint survey of 223 community gardens conducted from August 2009 to July 2010.

The 223 gardens surveyed represented 6,300 garden members, with an average of 29.2 members per garden. More than four out of 10 gardens reported using more than 50 percent of their gardens for growing food.

The five top veggies were tomatoes, sweet peppers, beans, eggplants and cucumbers. The sixth, surprisingly, were jalapeños. Collards were the most popular leafy green, followed by lettuce and kale.

The majority of the gardens surveyed had fruit trees, with apple and peach trees being the most popular. Cherry trees came in third.

The report found that about 65% of the gardens surveyed had a compost system. Most allowed only members and neighborhood residents to participate in the compost pile. Only 13% opened the compost system to the public (see related post here).

The report is a treasure trove of garden information, exploring how the food is used, the presence of greenhouses, chicken coops and other structures, and partnerships with local schools and community groups.